Common Name: CENTURY PLANT FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, fibrous succulent or not, from bulbs or rhizomes. Stem: above ground or not, branched or not. Leaf: simple, deciduous or not, basal or in terminal rosettes, generally sessile, linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate or ovate, fibrous or not, thin and flexible or thick and rigid or succulent; margin entire, fine-serrate, dentate, or with filaments, tips rigid or flexible, with a spine or not. Flower: bisexual; perianth parts 6, in 2 petal-like whorls, free or +- fused; stamens 6, +- fused to perianth, filaments often wide, succulent; ovary superior or inferior, chambers 3, style 1 (thick, poorly defined), stigma head-like or 3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, indehiscent, loculicidal, or septicidal. Seed: few to many, +- flat or ovoid, generally black.
Genera In Family: 24 genera, 637 species: worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dale W. McNeal, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Dale W. McNeal, Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: Perennial herb; bulb ovoid to +- elongate, outer coat black. Stem: 25--90 cm, slender. Leaf: basal, grass-like, keeled, +- glaucous. Inflorescence: +- scapose raceme or panicle, bracted; flowers 20--70+. Flower: perianth parts 6, in 2 petal-like whorls, fused at base; stamens 6, fused to perianth, outer 3 > perianth, opening before inner, all equal after flowers open; ovary superior, chambers 3, style 1, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit: short-stalked, loculicidal. Seed: ovoid, flat, black.
Etymology: (Hon. Serranus Clinton Hastings, 1814--1893, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California)
Reference: Becking 2002 FNANM 26:309--312